Regex for multiple words separated by spaces or commas

Question

I'm trying to create regex for multiple strings separated by comma or space.

Lorem Ipsum // valid
Lorem, Ipsum //valid
Lorem, Ipsum, Ipsum, Ipsum // multiple valid
Lorem // invalid without space/comma

Here is what i have so far:

^\w+(,\s*\w+){3}$/

So they must have a space but optionally a comma? Or are comma separated values (with no space) also valid such as Lorem,Ipsum? Also, is Lorem ,Ipsum valid? On that note, are Lorem, , Ipsum, Lorem,, Ipsum or Lorem Ipsum valid? Basically, what are your exact requirements/conditions? — ctwheels
– ctwheels, Commented Dec 14, 2017 at 19:23
Single words are accepted. If there is anything else after word example "Test" space or comma than it should be not accepted — Camila
– Camila, Commented Dec 14, 2017 at 19:37
Try ^\w+(?:(?:,\s\w+)+|(?:\s\w+)+)$ - it will match a string that starts with 1+ word chars, and then has 1 or more repetitions of , followed with a whitespace and 1+ word chars or 1+ repetitions of a space followed with 1+ word chars. Another way of writing it is ^\w+(?=(,?\s))(?:\1\w+)+$ — Wiktor Stribiżew
– Wiktor Stribiżew, Commented Dec 15, 2017 at 7:58

Wiktor Stribiżew · Accepted Answer · 2017-12-15 12:41:15Z

9

You may use

^\w+(?:(?:,\s\w+)+|(?:\s\w+)+)$

See the regex demo.

The regex matches:

^ - start of string
\w+ - 1+ word chars
(?: - start of an alternation group:
- (?:,\s\w+)+ - ,, whitespace, 1+ word chars
- | - or
- (?:\s\w+)+ - whitespace and then 1+ word chars
) - end of group
$ - end of string.

You may shorten the pattern using a lookahead and a capturing group:

^\w+(?=(,?\s))(?:\1\w+)+$

See the regex demo. Here, the difference is (?=(,?\s))(?:\1\w+)+:

(?=(,?\s)) - a positive lookahead that checks if there is an optional , and then a whitespace immediately to the right of the current location and captures that sequence into Group 1
(?:\1\w+)+ - 1 or more sequences of:
- \1 - the same text captured into Group 1
- \w+ - 1+ word chars.

See the regex demo.

answered Dec 15, 2017 at 12:41

Wiktor Stribiżew

631k41 gold badges502 silver badges632 bronze badges

Sign up to request clarification or add additional context in comments.

1 Comment

Salman Khakwani Over a year ago

Nice efforts for explaining all the granularities +1

Josh Withee · Accepted Answer · 2017-12-15 05:46:12Z

2

Try this regex:

^(\w+[, ]+)*\w+$

answered Dec 15, 2017 at 5:46

Josh Withee

11.6k4 gold badges53 silver badges69 bronze badges

1 Comment

Rolf ツ Over a year ago

Although this may answer the questions, you may wan't to provide some extra details and explain the answer. In it's current state this answer is low-quality.

eywalker · Accepted Answer · 2017-12-14 19:28:02Z

1

Assuming that you want to match the whole phrase:

^(\w+(,|\s)\s*)+\w+$

should do the trick.

answered Dec 14, 2017 at 19:28

eywalker

111 bronze badge

Comments

Nix · Accepted Answer · 2018-07-04 02:25:42Z

0

Since none of the above worked for me, I came up with this:

/([^,\s]+)/g

answered Jul 4, 2018 at 2:25

Nix

91 bronze badge

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

Regex for multiple words separated by spaces or commas

4 Answers 4

1 Comment

1 Comment

Comments

Comments

Your Answer

Hot Network Questions

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

4 Answers 4

1 Comment

1 Comment

Comments

Comments

Your Answer

Sign up or log in

Post as a guest

Related